Jesus Feeds the Multitude:

This is a story of Jesus feeding the multitude of five thousand people with only two small fish and five loaves of bread. Children can learn trust and faith that their needs can be met also by Jesus.

Matthew 14: 10-21

Jesus was upset about the death of John the Baptist it was a very sad time for Jesus. He departed by ship to a desert place so he could pray and mourn. Jesus and His disciples crossed the Sea of Galilee in a boat.

The Sea of Galilee is where Jesus was walking when he saw Simon called Peter and Andrew his bother fishing and made them His disciples. The Sea of Galilee is also called “the sea of Tiberius”. When the people heard Jesus was in their vicinity they followed him on foot out of the cities. The people were waiting for Jesus on the other side of the sea.

There were always great crowds of people that followed Jesus because of the miracles the saw Him doing. They trusted that Jesus could heal them or their families. Sometimes Jesus got so busy healing and preaching He would forget to eat.

When Jesus saw the people, He felt sorry for them and had compassion for them. They were like a flock of sheep without a shepherd to lead them. Jesus was their shepherd and He told them about the kingdom of God and healed those who needed healing.

It was getting late in the day and the disciples came to Jesus and suggested that He send the crowd away so they could go into the neighboring countryside and villages to find a place to eat and spend the night. They were at a desert place.

Jesus said into the disciples, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” The disciples knew they didn’t have enough money to buy food for all those people if they could find someplace to buy food.

The disciples were able to find five loaves of bread and two fishes which would never feed the multitudes that had gathered to hear Jesus teach. Jesus told them to bring him the two fishes and five loaves of bread.

Jesus commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and broke the bread, giving thanks. Then He gave the loaves to His disciples, and the disciples gave to the multitude of people who were now sitting on the grass.

It was getting evening, it was probably cool and there was plenty of grass to sit on. The people had been filled up spiritually by the teaching of Jesus. The probably realized they were hungry. When Jesus told them to sit down they had faith and trust that Jesus was also going to physically feed them.

Jesus took the loaves and gave thanks and started breaking the bread into pieces and then had the disciples pass out the bread. The bread began to multiply and make more bread. They broke the bread again and again it just never seemed to run out.

Jesus did same with the two fish. He gave thanks and broke them ingot pieces and had the disciples pass out the fish. They kept passing out the food until everyone had eaten until they were full. They all ate their fill and were satisfied. Then Jesus told the disciples to pick up the remaining food so nothing would be wasted.

There were twelve baskets full of leftover bread and fish! There were about five thousand men, beside women and children that had been feed that day with five loaves of bread and two small fish. This was a miracle from the LORD. When the men saw how he had fed all of the people, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

What Can Be Learned From This Lesson?

Jesus used the lunch from a little boy that consisted of five barley loaves and two small fish to feed five thousand people. If this sounds impossible then remember that all things are possible with the LORD. It is not unusual for the LORD to use something small to accomplish something very big. We cannot do anything great by ourselves. It takes the power of the LORD to complete the tasks He has in store for each of us.

We are given everything we can ever need by the LORD God. Just like the multitude who gathered to hear Jesus preach and teach and heal the sick trusted and had faith that Jesus would take care of all their needs we also need to have faith and trust that Jesus will take care of all our needs.

Joanne Holstein is a Becker Bible Studies Teacher and Author of Guided Bible Studies for Hungry Christians. She is a graduate of Psychology/Christian and Bible Counseling with Liberty University. She is well-known as a counselor to Christian faithful who are struggling with tremendous burden in these difficult times. She is a leading authority on historical development of Christian churches and the practices and beliefs of world religions and cults.